Timeless Raps, Vol. 3

Rap:

“Now lemme see you get that block work rolling
Lemme see you get that clockwork going
Fiends copping by the clockwork flowing
All day and all night
Till them S.W.A.T. cops rolling
Or that clock…stop…going
Tick…tock…tick…tock…(AYE!)
Homie,
Get on the grind like clockwork
Two for five or a dime, that's clockwork
Shorty,
You ain't gettin off the hook that easy
Lemme see that clockwork
She said look that's easy
Move it around, and around, and around, and around like a clock chick
To the sound, of the sound, of the sound of the clock's tick
Tick…tock…tick…tock…(AYE!)”

Rapper: Juelz Santana, "Clockwork", from his 2005 album What the Game's Been Missing!










Grounds for entry: It's about time

Explanation:

Flava Flav's depoliticized, impish antics struck a loony counterpoint to Chuck D's scathing indictment of the status quo. How curious, then, that Flav's comic relief gave birth to the enduring avatar of Public Enemy's polemic - the over-sized timepiece. Now a universal cultural touchstone, Flav reportedly first donned a clock around his neck to correct his chronic tardiness. This practical solution, however, soon became a symbol of long overdue revolution - a call to action and a cry for change - as if to say, “look, all of you, the hour is nigh!” Now a played-out party gag nearly on par with the-old-lamp-shade-on-the-head, the clock around the neck was once a compelling synecdoche for history and the radical reorganization of society.

A lot has changed in the rap game since those halcyon days, but timing remains a central conceit of hip-hop. On “Clockwork,” Santana punches his timecard in the annals of hip-hop history, re-imagining the meaning of the clock for 2005. Santana's flow presides over the wet, sultry ticking of the atomic clock. Hypnotized by his own beat, he manages to rhyme “clockwork” with little else other than itself. No matter, the repetition further underscores his inscription of the hustling experience within the inexorable ticking of the clock. It's surprising how sexy and energetic this song is, despite its nihilistic under girding.

For here the clock is no call to action, but rather the metronome of the streets and the engine of their automation. His clockwork does not call attention to our mortality, or the urgency of our responsibility, but rather celebrates through mimicry the hypnotic eroticism of apathy. Juelz abjures revolution in favor of carnal and material delights, exhorting homies and shorties alike to internalize the rhythm of the prevailing order of power. His mandate is simple: synchronize your watches, pump the block with crack on the 1st and the 15th of the month (when the welfare checks come in, like clockwork), and watch the money pile up. A crack fiend's fix, sirens ringing, a female's ass shaking, his own rich rhyme - the clock is the architect imposing order, unifying the multifarious aspects of this crazy life typified by risk and unreliability. As for revolutions, I counted at least 20 on that escalade's rims at the last stop light.